Passwords and what not

Raise your hand if you are also lost in the complexity of online security?

I know this protective bubble has been built out for our safety only, but given the mental pressures of today's age, isn't it only adding to the burden?

You must have definitively understood what I'm talking about. 

A multitude of platforms means a plethora of 'usernames' also to remember. On some platforms your name is available, somewhere it is already taken. So, you have to come up with something unique name, if you don't have one already.

Another rising challenge is in passwords. You don't need just a passing word, it has to contain a minimum number of letters (preferably 8), a special character and a numeric also. 

One drawback of this situation is that you can fulfil all these requirements at the time of setting a password, but when you log into the account after days or months, it doesn't show the same requirements. So, one normally ends up entering the wrong password, which is without the additional requirements, hence leading to resetting the password.

As if the above conditions were not enough, we were introduced to Captchas.

At first, they were as simple as a checkbox declaring 'I'm not a robot.'

Going a step ahead, jumbled and misaligned letters came as Captchas to prove your human-ness. They were a cakewalk. 

I haven't tried Audio captchas ever, but even they would be fine, I believe. 

Most irritating captchas are image captchas wherein you have to tick number of pictures displaying the given word. I get them wrong most of the time.

Then came the advent of OTPs. With every registration, reset of password, and in banking: every time you log in or withdraw money above a certain limit, you have to enter an OTP. 

The most fun part is - professionally, we have to make certain payments wherein you require double authentication. One from the initiator, and approval from the supervisor. In some offices, the approver has given the login credentials to the initiator itself. But OTP from the supervisor is still needed to settle the dues. So, every time initiator approves the transaction from the online handle of supervisor, the supervisor has to share the OTP, despite the standard advice from the bank to NOT SHARE IT WITH ANYONE. 

Some elevated minds may be able to remember the credentials in spite of all the complexities, but how would they have it so easy. Now, we have to mandatorily change passwords on highly sensitive websites after a specific period of time, with a precondition that your new password should not be the same as your last 3 (or 5) passwords.

In banking, I understand the risk is quite high, hence the added levels of security. 

The upcoming asset for tech giants is data. Or wait, isn't it already an asset? 

Google acknowledges this and that is why Gmail has introduced tapping a code on your device whenever we log into our mail accounts from a completely new device. It is a good thing as our mail accounts basically reflect us. You are logged into your Android, Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and even your Whatsapp backups are also being uploaded on Google drive, which is only an extension of your mail account. 

Now imagine: You lose your device i.e. your phone. With it, you lose your SIM as well. 

And your email. And all your data, history through it.

You can't reset your password because you wouldn't be able to enter the OTP. 

You wouldn't be able to log in from other nearby devices as you can't reach out to the 'tap code'.

And you would have to rely on your only contact to recover your email account.

Data war at a micro level, ain't it?

All said technology is making our lives easier and more complex at the same time indeed. In fact, technology is trying to make it easy, but people with malicious intent are making it way more complex.